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The Diary of Alicia Keys

Being compared to Aretha Franklin, winning an unprecedented five Grammys, and selling ten million copies of her first album world-wide – all at the age of twenty – could well have gone to Alicia’s head. But fame did not corrupt, and her simply titled follow-up doesn’t disappoint.A more sophisticated album than ‘Songs in A Minor’, ‘The Diary of Alicia Keys’ seamlessly combines genres from classical to hiphop with the ever-present influence of soul as before, now more emotionally and politically infused. She not only lives up to the great soul legends of the 1970s but surpasses them, exposing her songs to an ever-growing audience. The most popular soul artist in decades, Alicia Keys stands out as a confident, gifted pianist and vocalist unafraid to write her own songs and produce her own album, an album that is sure to live up to its predecessor’s success.Archive: oth week HT 2004

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